UAE stops giving all types of visa

Foreign ministry unaware of the 'temporary move'

Diplomatic Correspondent

The United Arab Emirates has temporarily stopped issuing all kinds of entry permits for Bangladeshi passport holders as Dhaka has failed to resolve the UAE's security concerns over identification and fake documents, Gulf News reports.

However, officials at the foreign ministry and the Bangladesh embassy in Abu Dhabi said they were yet to know about any such move.

Earlier in August, the UAE imposed stringent measures because of the increasing number of Bangladeshis there, many with fake documents, expired passports and visas.

The UAE had considered this large number of people as a security threat.

Maj Gen Nasser Al Awadi Al Menhali, an assistant undersecretary at the ministry of interior in the UAE, confirmed that there would be no new visit visa, resident visa, tourist visa or any other kind of visa for Bangladesh nationals.

“The situation will return to normal once a number of issues are resolved by the Bangladesh government. The suspension of issuing visas is not permanent and is not a ban,” he was quoted as saying by Gulf News on Wednesday.

But Md Nazrul Islam, director general (West & Central Asia Wing) of the Bangladesh foreign ministry, said: "We do not have any information on the suspension of all types of visa issuance for the Bangladeshis.

"Our embassy in the UAE or the foreign ministry has not received any letter or notification from them [UAE].”

However, Nazmul Quaunine, Bangladesh ambassador to the UAE, told The Daily Star over the phone that the UAE government had not stopped issuing visas to Bangladeshis.

Asked whether the UAE government had imposed any restrictions on Bangladeshi workers, he said, “We cannot say it because we have not received anything officially.”

When his attention was drawn to the Gulf News report, the ambassador said the newspaper had published a similar news report a couple of months ago, but “there has been no official confirmation till date.”

“We have no knowledge about any fresh move by the UAE government. People are coming from Bangladesh every day,” he added.

Maj Gen Al Menhali told Gulf News that the current Bangladeshi visa holders in the UAE would not face any difficulties at the time of extending their visas or renewing residency permits.

“We are not issuing any new visas to Bangladeshis but we are renewing for those who already have residence visas,” he said.

Ali Haider Chowdhury, secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira), told The Daily Star that they had come to know from the UAE media that the authorities there had stopped issuing all kinds of visas for Bangladeshis.

“We have long been asking the government to address the concerns of the UAE when the restriction was imposed over a month ago," he said.

But the government did not pay attention to the UAE's concerns, and even ruled out the fear that the country many impose some restrictions.

"Now, finally the UAE has stopped issuing all kinds of visas,” he added.

The restriction, a month ago, caused a drastic fall in manpower export to the UAE. In June, Bangladesh exported 23,025 people and in July 27, 535. But the figures came down to 15,771 in August.

The UAE, which now hosts about 10 lakh Bangladeshi workers, the second highest number after Saudi Arabia, has been a sustained labour market for the last couple of years despite the global economic recession.

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Our globe-trot Foreign Minister palaver diplomacy is not bringing any positive results of our manpower export.One by one country is restric their visa quota and no new horizon of export is in sight.FM should accentuate to export of manpower rather than her wanterlust penchant.

: Nasirullah Mridha,USA

Being an ambassador of a country Mr. Quaunine know nothing of the situation!! what is his responsibility?? why he is holding the post then ??

: Hakim

Comments

zFriday, October 5, 2012 03:43 AM GMT+06:00 (147 weeks ago)

Bangladesh is in this mess because of the inefficient and irresponsible MRP contractor IRIS of Malaysia and Data Edge of Bangladesh. Not having systems in place and failing to meet every deadline led to this situation. Passport book problems, MRP personalisation problems, pilferage, failure to meet citizens needs led to issue passport without necessary caution. One cannot expect Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, or West not to adopt such measures when travel documents are suspect as reported in this newspaper.

kishoreFriday, October 5, 2012 07:43 AM GMT+06:00 (147 weeks ago)

How much insult is still waiting for us I don't know. Since independence we are always going down, status of our passport is steadily declining day by day. Those who have black money ( or expert enough) can manage a shelter in other countries, able to change their passport colour but those who are somehow running their lives honestly, working hard and want to enjoy a peaceful life with some or minimum honour in their motherland are really full of frustration. The root cause of all these problems is a vicious cycle of corruption which encircles us like a spider web. If Boss is corrupt , Boss cannot take action against his/ her subordinate.

RazFriday, October 5, 2012 07:46 AM GMT+06:00 (147 weeks ago)

Not surprising, time is coming we will be barred to go anywhere! Our govt. main work is to busy with self propaganda and putting opposition in to jail and plunder some govt. fund. We have a foreign minster like to be poet! And our foreign secretary looks like his main work is to eat lot of Fatty food.

It is disturbing that the Bangladesh envoy in UAE has not been monitoring the drastic fall in numbers of manpower export. Instead they choose to hide behind official mumbo jumbo. What exactly are these flag waving ambassadors doing all day long burning tax payer money in a foreign country?

This problems deep-root in Bangladesh soil. The Government of Bangladesh cannot control the middlemen (Broker). They are corrupting the systems. They spoilt everything. This mess uncontrollable. Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, UAE, tomorrow maybe South Korea, Japan, Singapore etc will take a same action. We in Malaysia prefer workers from Nepal, the Philippines and Myanmar. They do better and easy to manage. Even Pakistani more welcome nowadays.

ShiblyFriday, October 5, 2012 10:59 AM GMT+06:00 (147 weeks ago)

We always hear that our govt officials no nothing about the problems facing our nationals overseas. They never try to find out the answers to these problems. That's how effective our govt is!

W. KhanFriday, October 5, 2012 12:52 AM GMT+06:00 (147 weeks ago)

How frustrating! What kind of Government do we have in Bangladesh? First Saudi Arabia stopped allowing Bangladeshi workers, then Kuwait. Now UAE. Even Malaysia did the same. There is chaos in the country. Their student leaders walk around freely with arms and vandalize public property. Law enforcers cannot or will not touch them. Still the PM says that there is no corruption in her Government. There is a limit to being arrogant. This is truly frustrating.